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Alter Ego Assignment 1

Script/Plan

“When you were younger…”

Themes:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Characters: Me (Current) + Grandmother

Reason to meet: Granddaughter visits grandmother.

Place for them to meet: Grandmother’s living room.

Incident to set up/respond to: Granddaughter reminisces about her past. She recalled her grandmother used to comb her hair as she sat on that couch when she was little.

Scene set –up: After taking a bath, Yiling walks to the living room to get her comb. Yiling sees Grandma sitting on the couch resting and this reminded her of the old times.

Dialogue:

(To be confirmed because not certain if grandmother can remember the script. If not will just improvise on the spot to get a more realistic and documentary type of an actual dialogue between me and my grandmother.)

Y – Yi Ling; G – Grandmother

(The dialogue will be in dialect)

Y : Ah ma, comb my hair for me?

G : aiyo so big already still want ah ma to comb hair for you ah?

Y : *while G was combing Y hair* Ah ma do you still remember how was I like as a child?

G : Aiyo last time when you were a little girl………(talks in detail about my naughty incidents as a child for maybe 40 seconds)……….and now you’re so big girl already. Wah time passes so fast…

Y: Ah ma, you do know that even though I was so naughty to you last time, I love you a lot right? Even now so.

G: Aiyo, I know hahahaha.

Explanation

The above is the dialogue I had initially wanted to carry out between my Grandmother and me. I had the idea to have an intimate conversation with my grandmother by talking about my past, which her expressions and her memories of me would bring her character out better. Be that as it may, much improvisation had to be carried out to head in the direction that I wanted instead of following the script I had planned out word for word.

Through this dialogue, there is a tight relation between both characters: My Grandmother and Myself.

I felt deeply that this dialogued recorded cannot be replicated or reproduced by anyone except for the both of us. Stories may vary when asking a different person who shares the same memory, but this story only makes sense when told by my grandmother and questions imposed by me.

In Depth Character Profiling (Updated)

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My grandmother’s whole life is dedicated to taking care of the house and providing a home for her children, as well as practically taking me under her wing ever since I was born because my parents had to go to work. Her love language is more of ‘Acts of Service’ rather than ‘Words of Affirmation’. Hence, towards the end she replies my expression of love towards her with a mild chiding tone and shy chuckle.

me

My character in this dialogue is more of a reminiscing and a questioning one. Unlike my grandmother who is always at home and hardly steps out of her house, I am constantly on the move with time. My childhood is something I cannot revisit, and it will only be a fragmented piece of memory. Hence, this conversation with my grandmother about my past, adds another perspective on the same memory I had. In addition, it feels heart-warming to hear from my grandmother’s perspective of her memory of my childhood self.

Methodology

I added some clips between the dialogue footage not only to spice up the stagnant one-frame-middle shot, but to set the scene of where the dialogue was set up.

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Such as my grandma’s HDB Flat scene, clock ticking (in my grandmother’s house), the swaying Bougainvillea flowers planted by my Granddad before he passed on (appears when Grandma and I were talking about him) and the ‘Block 321 Clementi Ave 5’, which is the neighborhood area of where my grandma stays at.

In addition, the clips are included to provide visual aid instead of having the viewers to just imagine something they might have never seen before.

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Such as the process of her preparing food for me and the food that I loved to eat as a kid, exactly as the way how she prepares them.

For this part, I was inspired by a certain scene in The Virgin Suicide, where Trip and Lux were in the auditorium:

I liked the idea of how the narration in the lecture are in sync with the actions between Lux and Trip. For instance, at the 0:13 mark when the narration in the lecture says, “One high pressure and one low, coming into contact with another.”; and that is when Lux and Trip’s elbows touched. Hence, I was inspired by that scene and I added to the food scenes when the food my grandma listed out appears onscreen simultaneously.

Something that I have observed when I was adding subtitles to the video, is that how the subtitling was done really sets the atmosphere of the dialogue and film as well. While editing, I was pondering between translating the conversation for what it means in formal English, or should I translate it for what it is: Informal and light hearted conversation between a grandchild and a grandmother. As you can see, I went for the latter.

I included ‘Using Motifs to express Themes’ a couple of times in this project.

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Clock Ticking footage and the Block Number 321 footage to express my theme:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Both motif involves numbers. The clock showing that time is never stopping as much as we reminisce, and that ‘321’ is a form of counting down to the days we have left.

Difficulties faced

  1. Staging the dialogue according to the script was not easy at all because my grandmother character was MY ACTUAL GRANDMOTHER and directing her character to memorize the script was not plausible, so I tried to direct her in a way that our conversation is headed in that direction I wanted. Hence, the final product was more of a documentation of my daily conversation with her and I really liked it because: One, it was on a real account; Two, it was hardly staged because I just told my grandmother to talk to me as per normal and Three, I got to know some new things about how my grandmother sees me as a kid.
  2. I had a lot of extra footage, and cutting it down to grasp the main essence and the part about expressing my characters through the dialogue was not easy. Because I found that many parts were critical and I had to give up quite a handful of precious dialogue that would emphasize on my grandmother’s character. Thus, abrupt cuts were seen.
  3. I started to use Adobe Premier Pro for the first time to fully edit a video and it was quite stressful because I had a mental image of how I would want the video to look, but I was not able to achieve it because I wasn’t familiar with the software. But I believe with more practice and video tutorials online, I think I would be better than I was this time. 🙂

 

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Our group or as known as Ling Teh Kam-pany (Derived from our names), consists of Kam Yit Ling, Clara Teh Ke Wei and myself, Seng Yi Ling. And here, we present to you our very own movie trailer for our final 4D assignment of Year 1 Semester 1…

Movie Title: Yi(t) Ling
Genre: Fantasy + Psychological Horror

3 Act Structure

Beginning (Act 1)

Yi Ling is a shy and quiet person. Once focused on a task, she is far from being distracted. Sadly, she is ostracized by her classmates as she seemed rude and had a stuck up attitude. Her classmates disliked and gave her a hard time. Until one day, her new classmate Queenie decided to befriend her.

Rising action

To her dismay, Queenie sold Yi Ling out to fit in as she got ostracized by their classmates when she was seen hanging out with Yi Ling. She ganged up with her classmates and forced Yi ling into room rumored to be haunted for fun’s sake. When Yi Ling managed to open the door after much struggling, she was transported to another dimension where there were doors which led her to places as a ghost tailed her.

Middle (Act 2)

Encounters with the ghost tells Yi Ling that the ghost wants her to stay in this dimension and never go back. The spirit was motivated by loneliness which both characters shared and was enraged when Yi Ling refused to stay.

Ending (Act 3)

The ghost is in actual fact a manifestation as her alter ego. The other dimension filled with doors was a symbolism of change Yi Ling faced in her life. And the only way Yi Ling can get back to her world is by killing a part of her: Her Alter Ego.

References

We watched many horror movie trailers as a form of research and shared our experiences and views on past movies we’ve watched that could be of assistance to our movie trailer! 🙂

Crimson Peak (The Ghost was constantly present, but not shown blatantly.)

Black Swan (Killing of her Alter Ego)

The Babadook (Ghost was a manifestation of main character’s fears.)

The Boy ( Placement of background music.)

Placement of background music was very on point here – it had us 3 covering our ears and half shutting our eyes in fear to watch the trailer. The initial beginning of the trailer has a soft mellow piano tune when the female lead approaches the mansion, and the drastic change of music when they revealed The Boy to her sent shivers down our spine. The sudden change of music instantly let the viewers know what atmosphere the trailer aims to set: Simple life of the girl -> Horror of her lifetime.

Blair Witch Project (Handheld camera shots to show desperation and fear.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51QgOHrCj0

Coraline (Travelling into another dimension, and use of different colour for different world)

In Coraline, the saturation of her world is low and colours are dull like the reality she lives in. In the other dimension, she enters a door where saturation is high and colours are vibrant and lively like the life she yearns to live in.

Editorial

Blackout shots – Blackout transition shots are a recurring motif. It is used as a representation of time lapse. When used in our trailer, the following scene will be of another place and another time. In addition, length of transition creates suspense and indicate a tonal shift in the scene.

Color  – Adjusting of color to establish different dimensions were used. In the real world, colors are more saturated and was brighter; whereas in the other dimension, saturation was kept to a minimum and brightness was decreased to emphasize on the stark differences in both worlds, so as to make it more spooky.

Background music and audio – Music were used to build up the anticipation and gives the audience the emotion they ought to be feeling a specific sections of the trailer. For instance, mellow piano music at the start to give a soothing feeling, and high pitched fast paced music at the climax when main character was being chased down.

Parallel Universe – At the scene (0:45) where the main character exit onto the parking lot, the composition has a mirror image reflection on the extreme left of the shot, to enhance the parallel universe feeling.
Staircase scene shows main character running up the stairs away from the Ghost, but she remains on the same level as the stairway in the other dimension is an infinite loop (0:58 – 1:09) .

Shots Established

Still Shot was used at the start of the trailer, where a serene feeling is given of the school environment. (0:09)

Fast Pan + POV at the scene where main character looks around perplexed at the new dimension she entered (0:49) .

Dolly In and Out scenes are present at the scene to show the ominous door (0:30) and the scene where zooming in on her expression to show that  she is perplexed after opening the door to another location (0:48).

Mid-shot was used at the scene where main character is pleading the classmates to let her out. (0:40)

Handheld shot when the main character is running up the stairs. (1:01)

Low Angle Shot at the scene where 3 Classmates (Dawin, Jon, JiaQi – Thanks guys!) were gossiping about the main character. (0:22)

Trucking Shot was used when classmates (Thanks Queenie and Debbie!)were pushing the main character inside the haunted room. (0:35)

Close-up Shot was used when main character was wrenching at the door handle when she is locked in (0:41). And the part where the main character’s phone is ringing (1:25).

Canted angle shot are present when phone is dropped amidst the struggle when pushing the main character inside the haunted room (0:37), and the scene where the ghost is wrenching the door to be opened (1:14). This is to create drama and suspense.

Slow Pan is used at the transition scene where the main character looks into the mirror and the reflection looks back at her (1:39-1:42).

Challenges Faced

  • We tend to forget that the trailer is 2 mins and thus, eventually worry that our trailer does not convey our plot properly; but at the same time we don’t want our trailer to be a 2 min summary of the movie (given that it is a MOVIE trailer).
  • Finding an appropriate location which conveyed the intended feeling was not easy. Our main character’s setting is in a school environment and hence the school was used. But for the horror aspect we had to find narrow and dark areas within campus and that was difficult. Given that we even trespassed ongoing construction sites in school.
  • Suitable. background. music. was. really. hard. to. find.
  • Miss Ruyi mentioned that our logo and lobby music was not very appropriate for our Horror trailer, but our group felt that the logo was a good representation of our efforts as a group and the elevator music gave it a merry feeling. This will create the drop of emotions when the horror aspects of our trailer is revealed. 🙂
Feedbacks and Critiques
  • Bar chart results obtained from Ms Ruyi’s Google survey for our group were more towards the positive end of the spectrum.  (thank you!)
  • Sound effect can be toned down to hear narration of the alter ego better in the end.
  • The starting music doesn’t match with the rest of the trailer , perhaps a non jazzy music that foreshadows the story?
  • Show that the alter ego and the main character are two compelling personalities/ people by including more interactive scenes between the 2. Perhaps by voice over of dialogue between 2 person or a struggle between the 2.
  • Yi Ling can act! (Yi Ling says thank you >~< )
  • There were different shots to show the mood of the character.
If u guys have any constructive criticism or comments that we’ve missed out, do leave a feedback down below! WE APPRECIATE IT ?
Initially I was pretty apprehensive to do group work for assignments as I am a rather ‘lone ranger’ kind of person, and having to do group work would mean that there is potential conflicts etc. But I was proven extremely wrong as I felt that our group worked really well together and even bonded closer as friends! 😀 I am very blessed to have worked with Clara and Yit Ling for this project, and I couldn’t have asked for better group mates~
Our first and hopefully not the last group photo as Ling Teh Kam-pany :D

Our first and hopefully not the last group photo as Ling Teh Kam-pany 😀

Thanks lovelies 😉

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Our very first G05 class outing happened yesterday at NUS Museum featuring the exhibition: Double Vision! Double Vision is a selection of video works and experimental films that are inspired by the affinities between the Philippines and Vietnam in the history of the American wars in the Pacific.

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Videos & artist films by: David Griggs, Gym Lumbera, Miko Revereza, Roxlee, Shireen Seno, Angel Velasco Shaw, Stephanie Syjuco and Kidlat Tahimik.

Pdf format of the Brochure: http://www.nus.edu.sg/museum/pdf/2016/NUSM_DoubleVision.pdf

When we first entered the exhibition, the first film we watched was Shotgun Tuding by Shireen Seno

Trailer:

In summary, the film is about Tuding (the protagonist) who journeys to a distant town to hunt down the man who got her youngest sister Teresit pregnant. Along the way she

This film is constructed after Pancit Western, which is the Pinoy form of Spaghetti Westerns.

What I liked about this film:

Shots used are rather interesting. I found the dramatic close up of the subject matter’s face and dramatic pan out shots to be rather comedic and kind of poking fun at the mainstream western American Wild Wild West kind of films, where two cow boys would be having their showdown.

Color pallete used in this film was muted and had a rather soft and dusty feeling to me.

Nailed by Angel Velasco Shaw 

Is a Filipina’s exploration of a Catholic Church and 400 years of Spanish and American colonialism woven in a montage of images, sounds, stories and performances.

Although I watched this film from the start, I didn’t have much patience to sit through this particular film. The narrations were muffled, and I think with subtitles I would actually have stayed till the end of the film…

But regardless, I took away some learning points from the video in which I really find it interesting. The way the artists juxtaposes 2 shots: The dying pig being tortured to it’s death on the ground & the baby cradled in the mother’s arms; was rather fascinating to me because, in the case of the ritual where the child is baptized in one scene ( I think?), a pig is slaughtered. The phrase, ‘A life for a life.’ came to my mind immediately after this scene, and then Yit Ling (my classmate who was sitting beside me) said :’ The pig is like a baby also… because it can only scream and cry and you have no idea what it is saying, but it is suffering.’ My heart sank when I heard that.

ABCD by Rox Lee is an experimental animation video shot on Super 8 film. It uses techniques such as hand-drawn animation, painting on film, found footage, and collage to advocate a radically new and personal understanding of the alphabet.

I really liked the use of a mixture of techniques to this film as it adds variety. The film is a socio-political commentary. By incorporating the use of the order of alphabets, it made things a little disturbing in a sense by which the use of hand-drawn animation and Alphabetical sequence usually seen on American TV shows for children to teach them about alphabets, things take a darker turn when something so innocent turns into something morbid and cruel.

Instead of the usual, ‘A is for Apple, B is for Boy etc.’ the film goes ‘ D is for Dynamite’ and then the following scene is a morbid display of explosion etc.

My thoughts at the end of the exhibition:

Sad to say, I was not as enthralled as I expected to be after watching the film exhibition as I did not understand majority of the films. Perhaps it is because I have little interest in politics. The film that kept my attention from start to end is Shotgun Tuding by Shireen Seno as I felt there was a narrative story plot goal for me to follow from start to end. But regardless, I took away some lessons from this exhibition and that is the choice of color pallete, type of shots to be excuted and use of different techniques to evoke certain emotions in the viewers.

 

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For today’s lesson, we learnt about framing the moving image!

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Q: So why is a moving camera important?

Our class discussed and gave several answers!

  • A moving camera allows the viewers to see the actor’s facial expression & movement, it tells us where to look.
  • It gives a sense of flow, space and continuity.
  • It helps audiences to absorb information: Natural state of movement instead of stiff and flat framed images.
  • Gives different perspective to/ of a subject: Gives dimension and it is less boring.
  • The camera has character! Slow panning shows cinematic environment, up and down angle gives dramatic effect.

3 Things that move: Object, Camera and Audience POV.

  • Camera movement is very important, it makes things more exciting
  • Panning.

Panning Shots

Why do Cameras pan?

  1. It gives the geographical location of the character.
  2. Introduces landscape of that place.
  3. Expresses meaning non literally/literally.

Slow pan: Gives off a serene feeling

Fast pan: Dynamic shot

Whip pan: Dramatic feeling

Tilting shot

  • Exists in shots simulating the male gaze (where they scan a hot girl up and down)
  • Gives a sense of authority. Like in the movie, Grand Budapest, where the doorman and the manager were conversing from a higher ground and level ground, to show the status of the characters.
  • Gives opinion and critique of the situation.

Tracking Shot

Allows the viewer to see in the perspective of the character from behind, or follows the by moving alongside the character.

So when do you use panning or tracking shot to follow a character?

Panning is more 2D and flat, whereas tracking shots are more dynamic by following the character.

Handheld Shots

Handheld Shots are often used in Horror and Thriller genre movies.

Handheld camera shot is a video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator’s hands . The shots are shaky, as though we are running to escape together with the character in his POV.

Example of movies with handheld shots are The Blair Witch Project ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girSv9UH_V8)and ‘The Celebration’ . ‘The Celebration’ goes against traditional Hollywood movie shooting process and the shots are all handheld shots and are in natural state. It gives a documentary-like feeling and seem less fictional.

Dolly in and out shots: Zooming in and out of the shot.

Crane Shot: Using a Jimmy Jib camera to shoot the process, the shots are airy and floating, like giving a bird’s eye view in the sky.

Here is a video of the type of shots to get a better idea of the shots used in movies! :

A video that I think consist of a variety of shots is a music video, Growl by EXO! (fan girl shrieks)

The Music video is entirely conducted using Tracking shots, so there must be no room for error; otherwise the whole video has to be retaken. I believe the camera for this music video is taken using a handheld camera as the shots taken are very dynamic and moves all about the place. However, the shots are very stable instead of shaky and unstable like hand held cameras, so I believe a stabilizer was attached to the cameraman to allow smooth shots when he was shooting the video.

It also consist of Panning shots ( at 2:48 minute mark), Dolly in and out shots (at 2:37 & 3:23 minute mark)

 

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“Longed for him. Got him. Shit.”

This was our 6 word story class assignment for today and we (Group members: Queenie, Yit Ling, Zoelyn, Hui Min and Myself) were given some time to portray this short story into photographs using what we have learnt in class today!

I have learnt that framing is very important as it determines how the audience is able to get the full experience of the emotions and message the director wants to convey.

Lead room/ lead space

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Character looks to the right and has a lot of space to his right. This allows the audience to assume that the character is going towards that direction.

Rule of Thirds ( applies to close up, mid-shots, full body shots)

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Golden Ratio of the rule of thirds puts character the director wants to focus at the intersecting line. Allowing the audience’s eyes to be drawn to the character, creating a hamonious balance.

Framing

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In the movie, ‘ In the mood of love’, the door frame/ widow frame is often used as a frame for the main character. This is because our eyes to be naturally drawn towards open frames,The inclusion of a light source such as back light or lamp brings about attention due to the contrast of lighting between the dark hall way and the main character’s position.

Another movie , ‘Ida’ the main character is always framed at the corners of the screen, going against the rules of third even though she is the main character.

Ida (3)

This is highly intriguing to me because without knowing the actual reason why the director chose to shoot the scene in a specific manner, I would have assumed he is bad at filming.  But the reason for her being at awkward areas of the frame is because of her story. She is framed out of place. Just like her situation where she feels out of place as she is a Jewish nun. The breaking of conventional framing rules are exceptionally meaningful in this case where the way the character is filmed links to his/her story.

Lines

Horizontal lines gives a sense of peace and serenity.

Vertical lines gives a sense of stability and power

Diagonal lines gives a sense of dynamism, instability and is often used in futuristic films

Types of shots

Full body shot should have head space and legs of the character should not be cut at ankles, otherwise he will look awkward.

Mid body shot should be cut at the waist of the character.

Close up should be cut at the shoulder. It is recommended if director wants to focus on the main character’s facial expression, close scrutiny of details. Close-up shots of main character should not be cut off at the eyebrows or chin area, otherwise expressions are more difficult to be read and character will look awkward as well.

Macro Close up shot signifies importance of the object

Canted angle is when the shot is tilted at a 45 degrees angle.

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Like in Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire film’, scenes shot at 45 degree angle seem more chaotic, dramatized and intense.

Out of focus shots gives a sense of losing consciousness.

Shame movie out of focus~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Longed for him. Got him. Shit.”

“Longed for him.” Rules of Third are applied here . Down up angle, close up shot to create a feeling of admiration and focus on facial expression.

Close up shot of subject matters to emphasise on expressions. Line of perspective created by railings at the back allows viewers to draw their attention to both. Rules of Third are applied here too.

Close up shot of subject matters to emphasize on expressions.
Line of perspective created by railings at the back allows viewers to draw their attention to both.
Rules of Third are applied here too.

Stairway acts as a line of perspective and railing acts as a frame for 3 subject matters. Full back body shots are used.

Stairway acts as a line of perspective and railing acts as a frame for 3 subject matters.
Full back body shots are used.

 

Subject matter on the left is cut off half way to create a feeling of mystery. Rules of third are attempted to be applied here whereby the two subject matters on the left are the main focus

Subject matter on the left is cut off half way to create a feeling of mystery.
Rules of third are attempted to be applied here whereby the two subject matters on the left are the main focus.

Got him. Subject figure on the right is in the center to create focus, and subject figure on the left is still cut in half out of frame to create the feeling of mystery.

“Got him.”
Subject figure on the right is in the center to create focus on her facial expression, and subject figure on the left is still cut in half out of frame and out of focus to create the feeling of mystery.

Shit. Rules of third are applied here a well. Subject figure on the left is out of focus. Railing in the back creates an implied line to draw viewer's attention in the direction of the second subject figure on the right. Subject figure's expression are in focus to draw attention to facial expression.

“Shit.”
Rules of third are applied here a well.
Subject figure on the left is out of focus.
Railing in the back creates an implied line to draw viewer’s attention in the direction of the second subject figure on the right.
Subject figure’s expression are in focus to draw attention to facial expression.

Found this class assignment to be very entertaining and helpful in making me understand the types of framing, composition and shots that can better help convey the story the directors want to portray. I believe that now after this lesson, I would pay more attention to the types of framing an angles in films , and question myself more often as to why the director chose to shoot the scenes this way! 😀

Cheers,

Yi Ling.